


The Prom Thing

by Maymaaike



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Drabble, Friends prompt, Liam/Louis brothers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-02
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maymaaike/pseuds/Maymaaike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boys decide to watch some old home videos, but Louis' not so happy about that...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prom Thing

**Author's Note:**

> The idea is from FRIENDS, all credit to them :)
> 
>  
> 
> It's a drabble and the sentences are horrible especially with time usage, but I just thought it was cute so I put it up. Might edit it sometime..

“Guys! Guys!” Harry hollers as he runs through the apartment he and Liam are sharing, holding something in his hand. His four best friends are lounging on the couch, looking up at him, some curious, some quizzical, some laughing at his antics. “What Haz?” Zayn asks, shaking his head and laughing at his friend’s behaviour.

 The five of them are a really tight group, Niall, Liam, Zayn, Harry and Liam’s older brother Louis. Liam and Niall have been friends ever since they went to elementary school and Louis was always fun to hang around for them. Harry and Zayn tagged on later, when they met Liam at the university. They were soon introduced to the already consisting group of friends and got along amazingly. Harry and Liam moved in together, as did Zayn and Niall, in the same building actually. Louis lives alone a view blocks away, but he was mostly found at either one of the apartments. They’re watching a random game of basketball when Harry runs  in cheerily.

He stops in front of the television, earning multiple grunts from his friends, and wiggles with the object he’s holding in his hand. “Harry, what is it?” Niall whines again, wishing his friend would just explain already. “I was just looking for the manual to my phone when I stumbled across this.” He wiggles his hand again. “Liam and Louis’ home videos.” He reveals, and evil smirk spreading over his face.

Everybody perks up, even Liam and Louis. “Really? God I haven’t seen those in ages!” Louis calls out excitedly. “Put it in!” Zayn laughs, sitting straighter in his chair. Liam fondles with the remote to put in on the right channel as Harry puts in the DVD. They come to a scene selection screen and flip through all the titles. Settled down with beers and crisps the five friends watch all the short clips from the boys’ childhood, laughing and- for Liam, Louis and Niall- reminiscing. Liam’s first lost tooth, Louis’ first soccer game, some kind of recital from Liam and Niall’s elementary school, Liam and Louis singing for their grandmother, Louis’ broken arm and the visit to the doctor, it’s all watched and enjoyed. The boys perk up at every new segment, remembering the whole story behind it and joking with each other about bad haircuts or zits.   

“Ooh, I want to see that one!” Harry exclaims, pointing to a scene that was named ‘Liam and Niall Prom’. Everybody agrees and Zayn reaches for the remote but Louis kicks it from the table in a sudden reflex. “No, let’s watch something else.” He exclaims, scrambling to grab the remote and holding it to his chest tightly. Everybody gives him strange looks because, even though Louis could act weird at times, this was very weird behaviour. “What’s wrong with you Lou?” Liam asks, frowning at his older brother. “Yeah, just because you’re not in it, doesn’t mean we can’t watch it you diva.” Niall laughs. “He is in it, we’re always together with the family during things like that.” Liam reasons, still eyeing his brother strangely. “Why are you being such pricks about this? Just watch something else.” Louis groans, huffing as he sits back on the couch. He misses the look that passes between the four friends and therefore misses the signs that’re otherwise so easy to interpret.

Suddenly, four bodies fling themselves on top of him, hands grabbing everywhere in search for the remote. Niall manages to sit on top of him, Louis’ face now buried in his lap. Harry and Liam both pry an arm loose and Zayn’s slender fingers manage to steal the remote from him. All under loud protests from Louis, thrashing and screaming angrily. “You should’ve known, Lou.” Harry says simply. “Yeah, you saying you don’t want to see it made us want to watch even more.” Niall cackles. He slides off of Louis when he stops putting up a fight. Grips are released and Louis gets up, face completely blank. “Well, have fun watching.” He murmurs before grabbing his jacket and walking right out of the door. The four boys look at the door in shock, frowning at Louis’ sudden mood. Niall carefully look at Liam. “Do you know..?” Liam shakes his head and sighs. “Just let him go, he needs to get his shit together.” He mutters, eyes still on the door in suspicion. He figures Louis probably went back to his own apartment, but he’s wrong. Louis has slid down to the floor right next to the door, breathing out shaky sighs and pressing his face into his jacket as he remembers the night of his brother’s prom.

 “I’m actually more curious now.” Zayn murmurs. “It’s probably very embarrassing.” Harry smirks, taking the remote from Zayn and selecting the right scene. Niall and Liam sit next to each other, murmuring to each other if they remember anything about that night that was embarrassing for Louis. Their prom hadn’t been that long ago, but nothing came to their minds. They focus back on the screen just as Harry pushes play.

The scene started with a blurry vision, as did most of the home made videos. It soon became in focus and they were in the living room of their old house with just their mother in the picture. Soon, it turned to see Liam and Niall descending the stairs in suits, all neat and fresh for the night.

Harry and Zayn holler at the sight and the two boys laugh. Apart from their younger faces and their terrible haircuts they did look rather fine. “Who were your dates?” Harry asks gingerly, smile plastered on his face. “Lucy Vanderhill.” Liam answers. “But she’s not in the video. Niall’s date would go to our house and then our car would pick up Lucy.” He explains, eyes trained on the screen.

His mother walked through the screen with a digital camera, snapping pictures of Liam and Zayn and squealing about it like a good mother does.

“And you Ni?” Zayn asks, popping some crisps into his mouth. “Dave Smithson.” He murmurs. Liam snickers. “Stupidest prick ever.” He decides and Niall agrees. “He showed up like, thirty minutes late!” He complains. “Lucy nearly cried because she thought I wasn’t going to come.” Liam fills in. “And after the prom we never spoke again.” Niall ends, rolling his eyes as he thought back of the conceited boy.

The attention is back on the television, where Niall and Liam were obviously waiting for Dave to show up. You could see that Niall was slightly panicking, Liam trying his best to soothe him. Liam’s parents whispered softly behind the camera, pitying Niall and fearing the boy wouldn’t show up. The camera suddenly whooshed over and there was Louis sauntering down the stairs, hands in his pockets as he flashed a smile into his father’s camera.

“I don’t get what he’s upset about. He looks perfect-ly fine!” Niall observes, stumbling over his tongue a bit. Liam shrugs but keeps his eyes on the footage, there must be a reason his brother didn’t want to see this material.

The Louis on screen was now in between Niall and Liam, commenting on their looks and pep-talking them into their dates and their night. His eyes flickered to the camera and he shuffled his friends a bit further away, lowering his voice.

Niall and Liam both crack up at the sight and Zayn pauses it as Harry demands explanation. “Remember what he said here?” Liam asked Niall, wheezing and laughing. Niall nodded furiously. “Yeah: ’Don’t have sex on Prom Night, It’s terribly cheesy. If you wanted to have sex you should’ve done it before or you can wait a little longer, so give me those condoms right now.’” He mocks Louis voice, chuckling every other word. Zayn and Harry crack up too, and as Zayn presses play again they see young Liam and Niall reached into their pockets to give Louis something that wasn’t visible on camera but, according to the story, are condoms. Niall nearly swept his beer from the table in his laughing fit, struggling for air. Louis has always seemed to be the cool and funny older brother and this only proved it.

On the television, they saw Louis making his way back up the stairs, probably to put the condoms away. The tension came back as they noticed Dave still hadn’t arrived. “I’ll text Lucy, tell her we’re a bit later.” Younger Liam suggested, but Niall shook his head. “No, we should probably just go already.” He sulked, eyes staring at the clock hopelessly.

“Aww, so sad.” Harry cooes, pinching Niall’s cheek jokingly. Niall just slaps his hand away and continues watching his sad younger self.

The camera wobbled as Liam and Louis’ mother scurried over to her husband, whispering something the camera couldn’t catch.

The boys can only hear that Liam’s dad agrees and then he hands the camera to his wife.

The picture turned back to the stairs where Louis was casually sitting, waiting to wave his brother and friend off to their night. His father sat next to him and animatedly whispered something to him. Louis’ face contorted painfully and he quickly shook his head, biting his lip and looking away from his father and the camera. “Come on son, you can finally do it!” His father cheered him on, pulling his eldest son into his side. “No, he wouldn’t want me to..” Louis’ younger form murmured, fidgeting with his fingers.

Liam edges closer to the television. He can count on one hand the amount of times he’s seen his brother act like this. This must be why he didn’t want to watch it.

After a lot of ushering, young Louis finally agreed to his parents’ plan and he headed upstairs with his father. The camera went back to a distressed Niall wrapped up in Liam’s embrace and his mother sat beside them to tell them everything was going to be just fine. As the camera walked over to the kitchen to pour everyone a glass of water- Liam and Louis’ parents weren’t really good with technology, so when they finally figured out how to turn the camera on, they left it rolling so they wouldn’t miss a thing- it suddenly stopped in front of the door. You could see a silhouette nearing the house and Liam’s mother opened the door to reveal a guy. He’s welcomed in and when Niall saw him, he perked up and quickly hugged him. Dave apologised for being late and the three guys all rushed towards the door to get to Lucy’s house as well, Liam shortly hugging his mother and telling her to ‘don’t wait up’. The camera showed how the boys pile into a large car and are being driven off before the door closed.

A silence falls and the boys expect the camera to shut off, but it doesn’t. Instead the camera moved up the stairs and through the hall, and there’s a hand knocking on a door. That same hand slid down to the doorknob and opened the door, revealing Liam and Louis’ father sitting on a bed. “Sweetie?” The tentative voice of their mother sounded. The camera pans over to the corner of the room, where Louis’s stood in a black suit with corsage, tugging on his collar to straighten it out. He turned to face the camera with a questioning look. “Sweetie, they left.” Their mother sounded, and Louis’ face slowly crumbles. Louis’ entire being crumbles.

Liam swears he has never seen anybody look so broken and to see it be his own brother hurts him to no ends.

“Can you please go?” Louis’ hoarse voice pleaded, fingers trembling as he clipped off his bowtie and let it fall to the ground. The camera left the room and then there’s only some bantering about how to turn it off before the screen becomes black and the DVD goes back to the scene selection screen.

 

There’s a long silence after, everybody staring at the television in shock. “He..” Niall utters. “He... for me?” Nobody answers to Niall’s rambling, though. Everybody’s quiet, thinking about what they saw. Louis has never been the type to be serious,  let alone so devastated. He’s never shared a lot about his love life, knows how to take the focus off of himself and he always rather helps others than talking about things that’re bothering him, but those things only become visible now. Now that the boys know he too has had struggles but never spoke about them. They somehow always assumed his life was going swell, that he had everything on track and going. To see him in one of his most vulnerable states was confusing and heart wrenching. 

“Told you it was stupid.” A small voice sounds through the room. Four heads snap to the front door where Louis is standing, looking smaller than ever as he watched the television with watery eyes. “Lou,” Liam starts, standing and walking to his older brother who’s never been this tiny to him. He’s always been shorter, but never tinier.

Liam wraps his arms tightly around Louis, but he feels two hands on his chest, pushing him away. “Please, I- I don’t want to-” Cry. Louis never wants to cry. Liam takes his step back but reaches out as he sees Louis heading for the door. “Please, I know you don’t like this, but we’re still your friends and we’re still there for you.” Liam begs, hating to look into his brother’s emotional eyes. He shakes his head, shaking off his Liam’s grip and slipping through the door silently.

There’s a small silence before there’s squeaking of trainers to the floor and Niall’s launched himself from his chair. Liam can just open the door in time for him to race through and run down the long hallway where Louis’ still walking. They know they should let the two of them figure this out, but Harry and Zayn quickly join Liam in the doorway, watching as Niall flings himself around Louis’ sad frame and firmly presses his lips to his. They stumble and knock into a wall, but finally Louis responds and wraps his arms tightly around the boy he’s loved ever since he was fifteen and Niall was barely thirteen. He lets his tears fall, but this time they’re happy tears because finally he’s got the boy he’s been dreaming about for ten dreadful years and his lips are on Louis’ even after he saw him embarrassing the hell out of himself.

They break away as they hear hollers coming from their friends and burst out laughing, still clinging onto each other tightly, not planning on letting go soon. Hands frantically pet at each other, discovering how it feels to touch the one you love and eyes absorb everything there is to see about each other, soaking in everything they’ve been missing out on.

And Liam can confidently say he’s never seen his brother happier than right now.            


End file.
